A virus or anti-virus software: what's worse?

I never have anti-virus software installed on my computers and strangely, I never have any problems.
I don't profess to be an IT expert but it amazes me that there's such a market for anti-virus software.
Am I missing something, or does Norton and Mcafee and all that rubbish slow everything down to such a level that people might as well not bother and just take their chances?

Be very careful. Many links are full of all sorts of shit. I have used Norton and McAfee just for peace of mind. AVG is a free programme but it doesn't detect everything.

BoltontillIdie and Biggie seem to be the techies on here so their input might help the posters on here who are as clueless as me.

On my old computer (last century model) that Norton was a right bugger for sticking its oar in.

With this new one that I've had since March I've been getting the free anti virus trial jobbies. I had McAfee for a month then AVG and now I'm on Bullguard, they've all been good and haven't slowed the computer down.

My understanding is that it's best to have sommat there even if Windows is doing their bit.

Microsoft own Norton and McAfee. Read into that what you will.

Its better to be safe than sorry - It depends what you do with your computer as to whether you would be more at risk to downloading a virus - I download lots from the web so for me Its definetly a must.

I have had viruses in the past and had to reformat the Hard drive and re-install windows. Once you've lost everything once you will certainly have anti-virus in the future.

I have tried Norton, but this slowed down my computer too much, as did mcafee. The best one by far, for me, is AVG!

I have had Norton and McAfee in the past and don't like either of them. I use Microsoft Security Essentials which is free and seems to work well.

AVG FREE all the way for me. Norton and Mcafee slow me down too much and eat up resources. AVG does everything I need.

I would never go online without some form of antivirus protection any more than I would go naked to the shop.

Doffy pal, your computer may very well run fine without AV software but it's what is happening in the background you need to worry about. Plenty of viruses will not greatly affect the user experience but that is what makes it so dangerous. People used to think of viruses etc as things you would notice like pop up ads and so on. That is not the case any more. Search results get farmed. Personal details get quietly stolen away - and I don't just mean bank details. Your email address could end up on a list somewhere and passed around to all sorts of places who start spamming you with junk. Your computer might even become a bot without you knowing. That is, people using your system resources to do their dirty work like hacking or crashing websites - and you wouldn't even know. You would be still able to use your pc as usual. There are a million other reasons too. But I strongly advise AVG, it's great. I turn off auto updates though so it doesn't bug me. I don' even notice it is there really (UNLIKE SYMANTEC etc)

I'm an IT analyst for a rather large company, this is what i think about anti virus software.

If you do a lot of sensitive work on your computer, such as handing any financial transactions or anything that involves keeping peoples personal data - you NEED a decent (paid-for) anti virus - I believe Norton internet security is the best and does not have to much of an effect on CPU usage (Ie, does not slow your PC down so much)

If you dont use your PC for business purposes, then you will be fine with one of the free ones, AVG's 'paid' anti-virus is a bloody good program, unfortunately - the free version is shit, dont bother. even if by some miracle it does detect something - it will not remove it for you unless you upgrade to the paid version. It will stay in a vault - this is safe enough but at the end of the day, you dont want it there.

I recommend Avast free, It gives you a free licence for12 months, this can be renewed every 12 months, its the only free anti-virus that works in 'real-time', it also integrates very well with search engines such as google and will 'pre-warn' you if any site you are going to visit is a risky one. It also has a P2P shield - this is handy if you use any peer-to-peer software (a torrent client or streaming football matches on-line) follow the below link to download...

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

forgive me, but if you do download anything or watch streaming media like football matches or TV shows on-line, your stupid if you dont have any anti-virus software, these sites are absolutely riddled with spy-ware and malware, sometimes you dont even notice your computer is affected. if your not infected by anything - your very lucky! spyware and malware is usually 'bundled' in with free downloads of certain programs - at best they will install a different search engine or hijack your google/yahoo searches to take you to sites that the company who wrote the malware get a fee for when people visit them - basically it redirects you to sites that are not really what you are looking for, its more annoying than anything else. at worst, malware can actually re-direct you to 'phishing' sites, phishing is when you are redirected to a site that looks EXACTLY the same as the one you want to go to - mainly on-line banking sites, for example - if you bank with natwest and type in the URL for NatWest (www.natwest.co.uk) it will redirect you to a site that looks exactly the same, you then log in with your details and bang... criminals have your bank details - i dont mean to scare you, the chances of this happening are pretty slim if im honest, banks usually just right on these and you will be warned before visiting it - but it can and does happen. on-line fraud is a massive industry.

Also, DNS changers can be annoying, they change your computers DNS settings, so you can only visit sites they allow you to or non at all - it basically takes your PC off-line by changing the host file on your PC - this is VERY hard to get rid of and usually results in having to buy a new copy of windows and totally wipe the hard drive - system recovery wont work as this uses the 'current' (corrupt) host file again.

if you have not had anti virus on your PC before, chances are it will be infected with something so id recommend doing a full system restore (it reformats the drive and gets the PC back to its factory settings) if its a laptop - tell me what laptop it is and il give you some instructions on how to do this, they usually have a partition on the drive - unless it has a CD ROM drive then it may have come with recovery disks you can use like a PC.

if you have recovery disks (it will say something like windows recovery/restore on the disks) just run these and follow the prompts - it does take a long time to perform and will delete EVERYTHING from your hard drive, so if you have any photos or music (including porn but as porn is riddled with viruses, i recommend just letting the PC get rid of this) you want to keep, back these up to an external source such as a memory stick.

once your PC is restored, you need to install an anti virus program (above link) BEFORE putting your saved data back on the PC.

WORD OF WARNING - windows usually give you a months trial of some anti virus software (usually Norton or macafe) having two anti-virus programs running at the same time can cause SERIOUS problems, even stop your PC from booting up - BEFORE installing ANY anti virus software, make sure you go to add and remove programs in control panel and unistall the free trial from there, if there is one.

once you have a anti virus program installed, put your 'stuff' back on the PC and run a FULL scan - it will take about an hour, this will check if the stuff you have put back on is infected or not. if it is, avast will tell you and it will deal with it for you.

you will also have to re-set up and wireless networks or any other settings you had saved as all these will have been deleted.

anything, just ask

xmiles wrote:I have had Norton and McAfee in the past and don't like either of them. I use Microsoft Security Essentials which is free and seems to work well.

you need more than this - trust me...

Reebok_Rebel wrote:

xmiles wrote:I have had Norton and McAfee in the past and don't like either of them. I use Microsoft Security Essentials which is free and seems to work well.

you need more than this - trust me...

Would you recommend downloading Avast as well as running MSE or only using Avast. If the latter presumably I need to download Avast, disconnect the internet, remove MSE and then install Avast?

xmiles wrote:

Reebok_Rebel wrote:

xmiles wrote:I have had Norton and McAfee in the past and don't like either of them. I use Microsoft Security Essentials which is free and seems to work well.

you need more than this - trust me...

Would you recommend downloading Avast as well as running MSE or only using Avast. If the latter presumably I need to download Avast, disconnect the internet, remove MSE and then install Avast?

yes...

MSE is not worth the HDD space, Microsoft own Macafe so want you to buy that for 'better' protection.

As far as free anti-virus goes, Avast actually works pretty hard for you...

I got my first computer in 2003 and used the free AVG. I always followed the updates and I avoided dodgy sites. Within two years my browser got hijacked and the whole system went to ratshit. It just kept directing me sites I didn't want. I took my computer to PC World and they examined it and told me that it was completely fcuked.

I ended up buying a brand new computer and I paid for McAfee Internet security. It costs me £49 per year renewable annually and touch wood I haven't had any problems since. I only renewed it in July but next year I might opt for Avast if it is free and as good as Rebel says it is. I just want piece of mind on my computer. Having kids, I have all the parent filters and McAfee runs a full system scan once a week.

I just don't think that the free AVG on it's own is good enough to protect your computer from all the shit that is knocking about.

I have never paid for virus protection, but I have a paid version...

Reebok Trotter wrote:I got my first computer in 2003 and used the free AVG. I always followed the updates and I avoided dodgy sites. Within two years my browser got hijacked and the whole system went to ratshit. It just kept directing me sites I didn't want. I took my computer to PC World and they examined it and told me that it was completely fcuked.

I ended up buying a brand new computer and I paid for McAfee Internet security. It costs me £49 per year renewable annually and touch wood I haven't had any problems since. I only renewed it in July but next year I might opt for Avast if it is free and as good as Rebel says it is. I just want piece of mind on my computer. Having kids, I have all the parent filters and McAfee runs a full system scan once a week.

I just don't think that the free AVG on it's own is good enough to protect your computer from all the shit that is knocking about.

Avast also provides a facility for content filtering - you can block certain URL's but it also will monitor what is being searched for and prevent access to porn sites... like your paid for stuff does too.

BoltonTillIDie wrote:I have never paid for virus protection, but I have a paid version...

you dont...

can you explain how this works?

Reebok_Rebel wrote:

Avast also provides a facility for content filtering - you can block certain URL's but it also will monitor what is being searched for and prevent access to porn sites... like your paid for stuff does too.

I will certainly consider it for next year. It's really good to have the likes of yourself, BTID and Biggie on board when it comes to all the techie stuff. Us old un's are clueless.

Perhaps we should create a sticky techie thread where folk can ask questions and be given sound advice without having to pay for it.

Reebok_Rebel wrote:I'm an IT analyst for a rather large company, this is what i think about anti virus software.

If you do a lot of sensitive work on your computer, such as handing any financial transactions or anything that involves keeping peoples personal data - you NEED a decent (paid-for) anti virus - I believe Norton internet security is the best and does not have to much of an effect on CPU usage (Ie, does not slow your PC down so much)

If you dont use your PC for business purposes, then you will be fine with one of the free ones, AVG's 'paid' anti-virus is a bloody good program, unfortunately - the free version is shit, dont bother. even if by some miracle it does detect something - it will not remove it for you unless you upgrade to the paid version. It will stay in a vault - this is safe enough but at the end of the day, you dont want it there.

I recommend Avast free, It gives you a free licence for12 months, this can be renewed every 12 months, its the only free anti-virus that works in 'real-time', it also integrates very well with search engines such as google and will 'pre-warn' you if any site you are going to visit is a risky one. It also has a P2P shield - this is handy if you use any peer-to-peer software (a torrent client or streaming football matches on-line) follow the below link to download...

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

forgive me, but if you do download anything or watch streaming media like football matches or TV shows on-line, your stupid if you dont have any anti-virus software, these sites are absolutely riddled with spy-ware and malware, sometimes you dont even notice your computer is affected. if your not infected by anything - your very lucky! spyware and malware is usually 'bundled' in with free downloads of certain programs - at best they will install a different search engine or hijack your google/yahoo searches to take you to sites that the company who wrote the malware get a fee for when people visit them - basically it redirects you to sites that are not really what you are looking for, its more annoying than anything else. at worst, malware can actually re-direct you to 'phishing' sites, phishing is when you are redirected to a site that looks EXACTLY the same as the one you want to go to - mainly on-line banking sites, for example - if you bank with natwest and type in the URL for NatWest (www.natwest.co.uk) it will redirect you to a site that looks exactly the same, you then log in with your details and bang... criminals have your bank details - i dont mean to scare you, the chances of this happening are pretty slim if im honest, banks usually just right on these and you will be warned before visiting it - but it can and does happen. on-line fraud is a massive industry.

Also, DNS changers can be annoying, they change your computers DNS settings, so you can only visit sites they allow you to or non at all - it basically takes your PC off-line by changing the host file on your PC - this is VERY hard to get rid of and usually results in having to buy a new copy of windows and totally wipe the hard drive - system recovery wont work as this uses the 'current' (corrupt) host file again.

if you have not had anti virus on your PC before, chances are it will be infected with something so id recommend doing a full system restore (it reformats the drive and gets the PC back to its factory settings) if its a laptop - tell me what laptop it is and il give you some instructions on how to do this, they usually have a partition on the drive - unless it has a CD ROM drive then it may have come with recovery disks you can use like a PC.

if you have recovery disks (it will say something like windows recovery/restore on the disks) just run these and follow the prompts - it does take a long time to perform and will delete EVERYTHING from your hard drive, so if you have any photos or music (including porn but as porn is riddled with viruses, i recommend just letting the PC get rid of this) you want to keep, back these up to an external source such as a memory stick.

once your PC is restored, you need to install an anti virus program (above link) BEFORE putting your saved data back on the PC.

WORD OF WARNING - windows usually give you a months trial of some anti virus software (usually Norton or macafe) having two anti-virus programs running at the same time can cause SERIOUS problems, even stop your PC from booting up - BEFORE installing ANY anti virus software, make sure you go to add and remove programs in control panel and unistall the free trial from there, if there is one.

once you have a anti virus program installed, put your 'stuff' back on the PC and run a FULL scan - it will take about an hour, this will check if the stuff you have put back on is infected or not. if it is, avast will tell you and it will deal with it for you.

you will also have to re-set up and wireless networks or any other settings you had saved as all these will have been deleted.

anything, just ask

Hey biggie my son loaded malware or anti malware bytes now my main computer is so slow it's frozen. AVG ran out and my computer guy recommended Bitdefender which my son loaded then the malware now I don't have a computer, I have to get malware off but thats difficult when it's frozen the mouse arrow doesn't do anything???

Angry - depending on what malware it is, getting rid of it can be tricky.

what kind of malware is it? do you know? symptoms etc?

problem is, most software you can get that will get rid of it is either protected by certain companies (Ie - exclusively for them) or costs a bomb and 50% of the time still dont work. be careful of stuff advertised as 'free' 'cleaners' or the like - chances are they are just scam programs that tell you you have a really serious virus just to make you 'upgrade' (ie buy) something from them.

there are certain programs that will get rid of malware (malwarebytes or hijack this) but they are not for novice users - you can really fuck stuff up if you dont know what your doing.

the only sure fire way to get rid of it if you dont want to spend hours deleting various files and running certain programs that take hours and hours, if im honest, is to re-format the drive and start again from scratch.

do you have a recovery disk or are you using a Laptop with no CD drive?

Reebok_Rebel wrote:Angry - depending on what malware it is, getting rid of it can be tricky.

what kind of malware is it? do you know? symptoms etc?

problem is, most software you can get that will get rid of it is either protected by certain companies (Ie - exclusively for them) or costs a bomb and 50% of the time still dont work. be careful of stuff advertised as 'free' 'cleaners' or the like - chances are they are just scam programs that tell you you have a really serious virus just to make you 'upgrade' (ie buy) something from them.

there are certain programs that will get rid of malware (malwarebytes or hijack this) but they are not for novice users - you can really fuck stuff up if you dont know what your doing.

the only sure fire way to get rid of it if you dont want to spend hours deleting various files and running certain programs that take hours and hours, if im honest, is to re-format the drive and start again from scratch.

do you have a recovery disk or are you using a Laptop with no CD drive?

It's called malware a red box with a black m in it as its logo, don't ask me what I have I don't even know how to use the micro wave!! It's just a main computer, I'm on my I pad now. If my boy can't do it will have to go to my guy vince,but I'm not too keen on that as it has nude stuff of the wife on it ,you know how it is.

I'm in trouble aren't I.